Technical Field
This application relates generally to overlay networking and, in particular, to techniques to on-board traffic for delivery by an overlay network, such as a content delivery network.
Brief Description of the Related Art
Distributed computer systems are well-known in the prior art. One such distributed computer system is a “content delivery network” or “CDN” that is operated and managed by a service provider. The service provider typically provides the content delivery service on behalf of third parties (customers) who use the service provider's infrastructure. A distributed system of this type typically refers to a collection of autonomous computers linked by a network or networks, together with the software, systems, protocols and techniques designed to facilitate various services, such as content delivery, web application acceleration, or other support of outsourced origin site infrastructure. A CDN service provider typically provides service delivery through digital properties (such as a website), which are provisioned in a customer portal and then deployed to the network. A digital property typically is bound to one or more edge configurations that allow the service provider to account for traffic and bill its customer.
For content distribution networks such as described above to function effectively and be performant, they must be “in path” between an end user and an origin server. Traditionally, this has been accomplished using a number of technologies, primarily DNS name resolution (e.g., tiered DNS aliasing through CNAMEs, geo-location, anycast, and the like).
This disclosure describes a new method to on-board traffic into the CDN.